9. Édouard Manet – Le Déjeuner sur l’herbe
A great painting yet also controversial, the work shows two clothed men and a nude woman picnicking under the oaks and chestnut trees of the Bois de Boulogne in Paris and it shocked Parisian society. Even Emperor Napoleon III, who was hardly a paragon of decency, called it “indecent.” With its particular focus on the well-known artist’s model and painter Victorine Meurend. What’s more, she boldly stares back at you, as if you were intruding. Yet due to the painting’s imbalance, the work has called into question whether Manet was a feminist or a misogynist?